SEE HIGH KNOB
In the area around the High Knob Landform, High Knob(southeast of Grindstone Ridge) is dominant structural feature of the Powell Valley Anticline of the Cumberland Mountain Overthrust Block. With its adjoining faults (Hunter Valley-Clinchport system), this region possesses the greatest concentration of significant caves in Virginia.
The summit of High Knob in particular exerts a significant impact upon the climate of southwestern Virginia and surrounding areas, being one of the rainiest and snowiest locations in both Virginia and the southern Appalachians.
This orographically forced climate has, through the vastness of time, worked in intimate union with the geology and topography to create a richly diverse landscape possessing vast biological diversity.